Newly blooming over night, the purple flowered large-leaf rhododendrom. (The white flowered ones that otherwise look identical usually bloom weeks later).
This jump to partially blooming overnight was unusual for these. Typically I think the flower buds swell earlier in the season (they only did recently this year) and then take longer before they show a hint of opening like these:
and in most years they spend a long time in that hint of opening stage as well. Then there is the stage where the bud for the truss opens to many buds of flowers, which usually lasts a few days. That first photo shows one that zoomed past all that from a green bud yesterday with no color showing, all the way to five of the blooms in the truss being open this morning. All the rest just jumped to color showing as in that second photo.
Meredith79 said:Azaleas need acidic soil. Plus many of them need moist soil but well drained. Plus I think they all prefer afternoon shade.
We tested the failing front lawn after we moved in (whatever was done to make it look right while the house was being shown collapsed quickly). The soil was too acid for lawn (but long ago, I don't recall the number). I used lots of lime and retested in 3 months and got the exact same number. I stopped even trying to fix that years ago. Right now (after weed-and-feed this year and lots of rain) the lawn is a greener mix of grass and moss than we have had in many years.
Never tested the soil elsewhere, but occasionally had expert opinions on some of the mosses, that say we are borderline too acid for acid loving plants. Only a few of the purchased shrubs were small leaf rhododendron. Everything was purchased telling the nurseries the soil was acid. Many were shrubs with needles rather than leaves. The last two purchases were and those are still alive. None of the earlier purchases of various shrubs with needles are still alive. Four purchased blueberry shrubs are still alive, but never had blooms nor berries. Four holly are all barely still alive.
Almost all plant descriptions seem to say "moist but well drained". I have little clue how to achieve that and no clue how to measure it, nor how much to water. Most of the shrubs locations in my yard have afternoon shade.
The healthiest of the three very old maybe-azalea is this:
Regarding that "moist but well drained": I'm part way through a big project to hopefully clone the large Rhododendron with white flowers from one place in front of the house to two places in back. I had let it get far too big for its location, so in the fall and winter I identified the branches that travel a long way on the ground under some dirt and leaves before turning upward to form the lower part of the section I wanted to remove and distinguished those (harder than you would think due to all the twists) from the ones that travel that whole distance in the air. I cut off all the ones that go the whole way in the air, which were blocking sun from the ones that turn upward after a long way on the ground. I hope the branches on the ground are now building stronger roots. Sometimes rhododendron branches are on the ground for years with no roots, sometime just a few weeks grows inch long roots.
Meanwhile I dug a giant pit while removing the stump of a dead maple. Along the way I was amazed at how impervious the soil there was to water. A puddle will just sit until it air dries. Even poking deep holes in the dirt with a crow bar wouldn't get any water to soak in. The rooted (I hope) branches will go into a small mound above that pit after I refill the pit. But obviously I don't want to use much of that original waterproof dirt in refilling the pit (elsewhere in my yard dirt is far better at soaking water in). So far, I put a bunch of yard waste (weeds, leaves, etc.) at the bottom of the pit, where they are soaking in the water the pit captured from recent rain. I'm wondering what to put on top of that to help the rhododendrons higher up achieve moist but will drained. I used up all my supply of partly decomposed pine needles (which seems to be the best material for holding moisture while letting excess water escape). I have bags of dry newer pine needles, just enough to mulch both the old azaleas and this rooted branches project (not enough to also finish the job I started mulching Hostas). Anyway I don't think I should waste those pine needles under rather than over that project.
